The concept of startups is gaining momentum in India by the day. With some great Ideas in the pipeline, a major issue faced by the current Indian Entrepreneurs is of Investment Capital and proper mentorship. Unlike other B-Plan competitions which often end with the winner taking a hefty sum of money, Conquest nurtures every idea mankind can think of into a fully blossomed product while taking care of all its needs. Comptalks, being a startup itself, is proud to be a Media Partner for Conquest 2013.

About Conquest

Conquest is the annual startup challenge of BITS Pilani. The belief in the product rather than the business plan is something which makes Conquest stand apart from the rest. It explores and caters every need of a startup – incubation opportunities, IP filing, expert mentoring and networking sessions with Industry stalwarts, Angel investors and leading Venture Capitalists.

Success Stories

Conquest has the tradition of producing some of the best startups in India. All 10 finalists of Conquest 2012 are successful registered ventures. PosterGully (Finalist-Conquest 2012) got incubated at The Hatch and has scaled up to such a level that it is a sponsor for this edition of Conquest. Gharpay, the Conquest 2011 runner up, was funded by Sequoia Capital just after months of starting up and is presently India’s biggest doorstep cash payment solution. Other startups produced by Conquest include Mobile Medics (acquired by Piramal Healthcare in 2008), iViz Security (raised $2.5 million funding in 2008, one of NASSCOM’s ‘Top 4 Emerging Product Companies’ & a big name in security solutions today) and NewDigmHealthcare (Funded by various govt. schemes to carry out low cost healthcare projects in Tamil Nadu).

Conquest through the years.

What Conquest 2013 has on offer?

This year’s edition has INR 3 lakh in equity-less seed money and INR 1 crore worth of incubation opportunities up for grabs. The resource pool for the finalists (cloud computing credits, accounting, sales, marketing, PR etc.) that has already crossed 2 crores. Conquest 2013 is offering database management software worth INR 20 lakh from ScaleArc to one of the finalists, 10 Fedena Pro licences to the top 10 education startups by Foradian Technologies, vouchers from Groupon India, Platinum PressDoc licenses for all Conquest participants and premium accounts at Olark, FreshDesk, Visual Website Optimizer and Fusion Charts. This list will keep on growing till the Grand Finale in August.

The Application process

The competition process is fairly simple. People can apply online by filling the questionnaire, after which we will shortlist 50 teams for the next round. Personalized mentoring sessions will be organised for these teams across 6 major cities in India, wherein the teams will have the liberty to choose their own mentors. The semi-finalists will be asked to update their profiles including the progress made since the initial registration for Conquest. Every team will have to submit a Video Pitch which will be used as part of the evaluation process to select teams for the Grand Finale. And at the Grand Finale they will get a chance to pitch the biggest VC firms in India. All teams irrespective of their selection to the next round will receive detailed feedback from the judges.

Conquest is the search to find ground-breaking zealous startups ready to add themselves to the hall of fame. It will be the perfect launchpad for all things entrepreneurial.

Registration for participation closes on 7th April. For furthur details head over towww.conquest.org.in